New Orleans officials seek to calm nerves in wake of violent Halloween night

New Orleans officials scrambled to calm nerves Tuesday morning after five separate shootings amid Halloween revelry overnight left two dead and 14 injured, with most of the violence centered in the tourist hub of the French Quarter.

A shootout between two men on Bourbon Street in the heart of the Quarter just after midnight left one man dead and seven people injured. All of the victims were caught in the crossfire when two people began to shoot at each other on the crowded street, police said.

A little more than an hour later, four more people were shot on Canal Street at the edge of the Quarter. One of them died at the hospital.

There were also non-fatal shootings in Mid-City, Bywater and St. Roch.

The violence on one of the fall's busiest tourism weekends occurred as the streets were thronged with costumed revelers, and tourism officials immediately deplored the outbreak of violence. Before the latest bloodshed, there had been only five shootings in the Quarter all year, said Remi Braden, a New Orleans police spokeswoman. Last year, there were seven shootings in the Quarter.

It was unclear what prompted the shootings, but city officials chalked much of the mayhem up to a street culture in which minor disputes quickly escalate into gunplay.

At a news conference late in the morning, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said New Orleanians are fighting a "battle for the future of the city."

"To the criminals, we're going to catch you," he said while flanked by city leaders, including New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas and Crime Commissioner James Carter. "We will win."

While promising the perpetrators will be punished, Landrieu and Serpas said that changing the city's "culture of violence" will take years. It's a theme the two have stressed often as the city's murder rate, easily the highest in the country, shows no sign of retreating. Landrieu and other local officials called the shootings part of a larger national pattern in which young black men are shooting one another with little cause.

Serpas pointed out that the shooting on Bourbon Street took place in the vicinity of more than 100 uniformed officers stationed on the popular entertainment strip and nearby Canal Street.

"What we have here is a culture of violence," Landrieu said, adding that many shootings in the city stem from arguments between people who know each other and lack proper conflict-resolution skills. "We need to get better. We can't stop this without a change in culture. It used to end with a fist fight."

Serpas said that while the investigation is still young, it appears Lewis bumped into Baltiman Malcom, 24, while walking near the corner of Canal Street and University Place, sparking a fight that ended with Lewis dead and three others injured.

Malcom allegedly fired his weapon 32 times.

Police arrested Malcom moments after the shooting and booked him on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder.

The mayhem came at the culmination of one of the busiest fall weekends for New Orleans hotels, which were chockablock with guests attending the Voodoo Music Festival or in town for Halloween.

"Halloween is something we really market as a visitor attraction," said Kelly Schulz, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. "The hotels in the city were pretty much sold out. And the French Quarter was full."

The shootings made national news almost immediately, with CNN featuring the violence on its morning news programs.

Stephen Perry, CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, issued a statement saying that "the tourism industry is appalled and disappointed at the recent burst of violence downtown by small groups of local young men. Their actions imperil our residents, employees and our visitors and reflect terribly upon our city."

Perry's statement concluded: "Even though this violence was not directed at tourists, it affects our city's safety and our national brand. We need more resources and a zero tolerance approach to this and our industry stands ready to support the mayor and the chief to take those measures that will ensure the safety of all of our citizens and visitors downtown."

Landrieu, asked about the effect a shooting on Bourbon Street could have on the city's image, said he was more concerned that the shooting "isn't anything that doesn't occur every day. This isn't a tourist issue. This is a much bigger issue than that."

Serpas said petty arguments that boil over into violence are "unnatural and unacceptable."

Carter said the city is working to find ways to catch young people during their formative years and teach them conflict-resolution skills many are lacking. He pointed to reforms within the New Orleans Recreation Department, an "aggressive re-entry program" for ex-offenders and the implementation of the Ceasefire program, aimed at stopped retaliatory killings through the use of "interrupters."

In the meantime, Serpas said, the Police Department is doing everything it can to respond to crime.

"Our Police Department is not sitting on its hands. We're doing a lot to respond to crime," he said.

Police identified the man killed on Bourbon Street as Albert Glover, 25. Serpas said investigators believe Glover was one of the gunmen exchanging fire in the Bourbon Street shooting. They believe the two shooters knew one another.

Glover, who has several drug-related arrests, pleaded guilty in September 2009 to filing false public records and received probation. He was awaiting trial on an unrelated charge of heroin distribution.

Records show Glover was out on bail, but was jailed again earlier this month after failing to make a court appearance. It could not be immediately determined why he was not in jail Monday night.

In addition to the two incidents in the Quarter and Canal Street early Tuesday, three other men were injured in two more shootings a short time later, New Orleans police said.

A man was shot at 4:17 a.m. in the 1800 block of Spain Street in St. Roch, said police spokesman Garry Flot. About an hour later, two more men were injured when gunfire broke out in the 1200 block of Louisa Street at 5:24 a.m. in St. Claude, Flot said.

The night's violence began Monday about 7:45 p.m., when a 16-year-old boy was shot in leg in the 600 block of South Pierce Street.

In the Bourbon Street shooting, police said, a 19-year-old woman was shot in the hip; a 25-year-old woman was hit in the wrist; and a 30-year-old woman was hit in the leg. A 50-year-old man was shot in the foot; a 40-year-old man was hit in the left ankle and thigh; and 24- and 26-year-old men were shot in the leg. None of those injuries was life-threatening, police said.

Police reopened the intersection of Bourbon and St. Louis streets by 3 a.m., and Halloween revelry continued for several more hours.

Anyone with information about these shootings should call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or 877.903.7867.